This Clock Just Got New Batteries
by Musemims
Summary: Friends. Acquaintances. Best Friends. Teachers. Assistants. Objects. End of the year projects.
1. Chapter 1

The teacher hated her. She wasn't really sure why, but he did. Levy was a good student, good grades, amazing essays, great attitude in class. The only thing was, she was quiet and shy, which led to "an insufficient participation in class", according to stupid Professor Geer. The only good thing about the lit. professor was his hair. Ugh, how she hated his guts. At least it was mutual, she thought, as she sat down in her usual seat, third row, fourth seat from the left window, where she had a perfect view of the sunset.

This so called teacher, Professor Mard Geer, wasn't that bad of a person. He did sometimes like to spontaneously throw chalk at students, but that was pretty much the limit to his hateful behaviour. His assistant made up for his serious, sometimes dark teaching habits, with her overly joyous and caring personality. Ms. Strauss was in love with the idea of shipping students, and it came to a point where most of the time, she was just writing down ship names, instead of actually helping the Professor, like any other assistant would do. When you fell into her hands, you were bound to become a couple. Everyone knew that.

The bell rang, most stopped chatting, and the minority that didn't were soon silenced as well. (The effects of the Prof. Geer glare were quite immediate.)

" All right, I know full well that finals week is coming up, and that you are all busy with your idiotic campus lives, but, instead of giving you poor poor students an exam, I will be giving you an end of the year project. It will be done in pairs."

Groans could be heard from all through the classroom. Some students were happy, some were not. Yet, through all the complaining, they all managed to find themselves a partner before the guidelines were even explained.

All of them, except for one blue-haired girl, and one muscular boy.

Gajeel had mastered the art of always being the center of attention, even as he stayed quiet. He sat in the last row, but with his numerous piercings and spiky long hair, no one could really enter the classroom without noticing him. He had this scary aura to him that Levy didn't quite like, and she was honestly a little scared of him. She was actually terrified of his big muscular arms that seemed to be capable of crushing her without second thought.

He never meant to be this mean. Yes, he did have quite the past, numerous fights, countless numbers of black eyes caused, and other quite painful statistics, but he wasn't a bad person. He was that guy who picked up the stray cat, who fed it, and kept it. He was the one who smiled at the homeless man on the street and stopped to talk to them. Unfortunately, Levy didn't know that. Neither did all the other students at Mavis University.

So when the two oddlings were paired together by Ms. Strauss, the whole class was shocked.

Levy was about to cry.

Gajeel was indifferent.

And well, the white-haired assistant was smiling.

When you fall into her hands, a new clock starts ticking.

A story starts.

Tick.

Tock.


	2. Chapter 2

You could hear the screaming from across the hall.

" No! This report does not include your excessive ranting about your fluffy new cat!"

" I have the right to express my feelings towards this amazing new creature!"

" Well then, could you please stop drawing cat doodles on my notebook!?"

" No! It's fun! You can't deprive someone of their hobbies!"

" Doodling cats everywhere on someone else's notebook is not a hobby, it's annoying!"

This conversation/argument went on for most of the class, and let's say that Levy was quite disappointed by the amount of work they had accomplished, or the amount of work they hadn't accomplished. She was frustrated, but she still wore a slight smile on her face that she couldn't seem to take off. Weird, she thought.

She wasn't really one to make friends, other than her best friend, Lucy. She was acquaintances with most, the people you said hi to in the hallways. Nothing more. She shared her thoughts with the people of the internet, and she traveled all around the world with the characters in her books.

She had many acquaintances. The barista at the coffee shop, she waitress at the nearby restaurant, the girl who she had all the same classes with. She could go on and on with the list of people. They were acquaintances, but never friends. She would never invite them over for lunch, or a movie. Never would she call them over to her house. Because they were just acquaintances.

She liked to label the people around her with names. Most were acquaintances, some others were friends, bestfriends, so on. She noted all these labels down in her notebooks when she was bored, which happened to be most of the time.

Gajeel was an acquaintance at most.

Right?

Although she had never talked about black fluffy cats with any of her "acquaintances".

Weird.

Gajeel was smiling.

Because they were talking about his new favourite cat.

Because he liked seeing Levy's frustrated face.

Because.

They were opposites, but they completed each other.

It was a known fact.

Opposites attract.

" Ughhhh stop it," Levy whined, as Gajeel took away her binder to look through her notes. He flipped through the endless pages of note taking, the occasional doodles, and the few tumblr post ideas.

She grinned as she fought him to get her notes back, huffing as he expertly avoided her flailing arms. He kept flipping, and landed on a page filled with words. He read it.

And as any person would, he asked,

" What am I?"

" What does that mean? I'm pretty sure you're a borderline human?" Levy responded confusedly, not realizing he had landed on the page where she noted down all of her labels.

" No, I meant am I an acquaintance? Which label am I?"

She didn't know.

She wouldn't talk about weird cats with "acquaintances".

Her heart didn't skip like this when she was with her "friends"

He doesn't fit into any of them.

She laughed nervously, not knowing what to answer. She brushed it off, telling him that she'd think about it.

They were laughing together.

She didn't care that they hadn't done any work.

She was happy.

She was smiling.

She couldn't care less about his past. So what? Today, right now, he was different. He was sweet. He liked cats. He was fun. He made her heart skip.

God, what was happening to her?

Tick.

Some people believe in things like fate.

Some people don't.

Levy did.

Gajeel didn't.

Who knows how they ended up in the same class.

With an assistant who shipped them together.

A chalk throwing professor.

Blue hair.

Metal piercings.

Opposites.

Her face was still red, for a reason she didn't understand. The small things they had done during literature class kept on popping up in her head, like tiny reminders that she would see him again in two days. Two days seemed like such a long time. 48 hours. In 48 hours, she could see him again.

2880 minutes. He had calculated. Math was never his strong suit, so to be honest, he had just typed it into his computer and the computer had done the math for him, but that's besides the point. Her smile was addicting. Her face when she was annoyed was adorable. She was like a fragile figurine that he wasn't allowed to touch.

Please.

He willed time to go faster.

Tock

The young girl saw the boy across the hallway.

She could see his metal piercings and black spiky hair.

She smiled.

The black haired boy saw her.

He pretended not to.

When she waved at him, he suppressed his smile.

They were opposites.

That was his label.

He was her opposite.

She was his opposite.

Opposites attract.


End file.
